An archival social and technological history of 21st Century mineral processing. Barry Wills of MEI presents news and views on mineral processing, as well as occasionally indulging his passions for travel, outdoor activities, geology, history and Cornwall.

Sunday, 13 March 2016

The Falmouth Hotel was the venue for last night's Camborne School of Mines Annual Dinner. A short taxi ride for Barbara and me, but others had travelled from all over the world to catch up with alumni and former lecturers. It was also good to see a high turnout of current CSM students (but unfortunately very few staff).

One of last night's many reunion photos

There are always faces from the distant past, and one surprise was Richard Thompson, one of my mineral processing students who graduated in 1986, and who I had not seen since. He is now working in the oil and gas industry. Charlie Northfield, a 1980 graduate, I do see quite often now, as he is Process Plant Manager at the Drakelands tungsten-tin mine at Hemerdon in neighbouring Devon.

Richard, me and Charlie

Pauline and Nick Clarke

Last night's Guest Speaker was Nick Clarke, who spoke of his colourful career in the mining industry after his graduation from CSM in 1974. Nick and I worked together on the annual Minerals Engineering conferences, pre-MEI, in the 1990s, when he was Director of CSM Associates. He is now CEO of Central Asia Metals, which, despite the recession, is economically producing copper in Kazakhstan. I asked him if he was optimistic about a recovery in copper prices and he felt that we were probably in for a fairly tough 18 months to two years.

I would like to thank Claire Yelland, Secretary of the CSM Association, for her splendid efforts in organising this annual event.